Family and friends of murder victim Kira Steger, including her father,
Jay Steger, center, walk to the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul for closing arguments in the murder trial of her husband, Jeffery Trevino, on Tuesday morning, Oct. 1, 2013. Jeffery Trevino, 39, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the death of Kira Steger. He has pleaded not guilty. Steger was last seen on the evening of Feb. 21, 2013. On May 8, Steger's body was pulled from the Mississippi River. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

The defense attorney in the murder trial of Jeffery Trevino is likely to argue Tuesday morning that the state’s case is entirely circumstantial and fails to prove that Trevino killed his wife.

Attorney John Conard provided a brief preview of his closing argument during a motion Monday asking Judge Leonardo Castro for an acquittal. Defense attorneys frequently request a “directed verdict” of not guilty by a judge. Those requests are rarely granted. Castro denied the motion.

Trevino, 39, faces two charges of second-degree murder in the death of Kira Steger, his 30-year-old spouse. She was missing for 11 weeks before her body was pulled from the Mississippi River on May 8. An autopsy showed signs of a brutal assault.

Trevino said Monday that he will not testify in the case. The state rested its case, and the defense called no witnesses.

Conard said Monday the state’s evidence could be boiled down to “countless, cumulative, repetitive” testimony about Trevino “acting funny” in the days after Steger disappeared.

Trevino either did too much or too little, depending on which witness was testifying, Conard said.

The severity of the assault indicated it could not have been quiet, Conard said. Yet the roommate who lived in the basement of the Trevino-Steger house — whom Conard has dubbed the “super-human sleeper” — heard nothing, Conard said. (Matthew Roff, who was at home Feb. 21, the last night Steger was seen alive, testified that he typically sleeps very deeply.)

And the state’s allegation in the criminal complaint of “copious” amounts of blood in the couple’s home was simply “untrue,” Conard said.

“It’s hard to put this murder in that bedroom,” the defense attorney said. “I mean, I’m not sure they can even prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she met her ultimate demise in Ramsey County.”

The jury was not in the courtroom during that argument.

Prosecutor Richard Dusterhoft countered by reiterating a handful of the state’s points.

Steger’s assault left “150 aerosol spots of blood” in the couple’s bedroom, he said. Her car was hidden at the Mall of America, where she worked. Trevino gave police investigators specifics about his whereabouts after the last night he and Steger spent together. Yet he left out — in two interviews — the fact that he had gone to a gas station the morning of Feb. 22 and taken $80 from an ATM there.

The prosecution has hinted that Trevino used the cash to pay the $35 cab fare back from the Mall of America after stashing Steger’s car in a corner of the parking ramp. Police found her blood in the trunk. The cab’s passenger asked to be taken to “424 East Iowa” Avenue in St. Paul. There is no such address. Trevino and Steger lived in the 500 block of East Iowa.

Also Monday, Dusterhoft raised the issue of Conard’s implication Friday that a bag of marijuana in Steger’s purse had something to do with her death. Based on that, the prosecution asked St. Paul police to investigate further over the weekend.

They found that a man who lived down the street from Steger and Trevino had supplied the pot. He was the boyfriend of one of Steger’s friends, who had testified about Steger’s occasional marijuana use.

The man told police that Steger bought the pot about two weeks before her disappearance, Dusterhoft said. The judge denied the state’s request to put the man on the stand.

Testimony ended Monday morning with continued cross-examination of now-retired St. Paul police Sgt. John Wright.

Conard asked if the blood-soaked pillow found at Keller Lake in Maplewood had been “connected to any bedding in the house.” Wright said it had not. He asked if police had canvassed the neighborhood to find out if anyone had seen or heard anything. They had, Wright confirmed, but no witnesses were found.

Conard had implied Friday in questioning Wright that Steger’s marijuana use could have put her in danger.

Drug dealers get robbed, Wright said when Dusterhoft questioned him again Monday; buyers not so often, he said.

The prosecutor asked him how often he had seen cases in which victims of drug robberies were thrown into the river.

“I can’t remember one case where a victim of a robbery was disposed of in the river,” Wright said.

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